A vicious crime for which two minors were convicted.
A Manchester court in England on Wednesday convicted two minors, who cannot be identified because of their age, of the murder of a 16-year-old transgender girl.
Brianna Ghey was stabbed 28 times in a park in Warrington, Cheshire, on the afternoon of February 11.
The crime, which was planned and written on paper by those convicted before committing it, left authorities shocked and Ghey’s parents devastated.
“The pages and pages of WhatsApp messages between the two, planning and plotting to kill people, talking about murder, torture and cruelty, were very difficult to read,” said deputy prosecutor Ursula Doyle.
She added that the messages “provided a terrifying insight” into the minds of the couple” who committed the deeds.
Those responsible for the crime, a boy and a girl who are now 16 years old, blamed each other.
Judge Justice Yip indicated that both should serve a life sentence.
“What I have to decide is the minimum amount of time they will be required to serve before they can be considered for release,” he said.
Following the decision, there were gasps in the courtroom.
Meanwhile, the teens showed no emotion from the dock.
A planned crime
Warning: the following story may be disturbing.
During the trial, which lasted 18 days, in court said that the couple guilty of the crime were intelligent, “highly functional” and came from “normal” backgrounds.
But that at the same time they had a “thirst to kill” and that Brianna’s crime was planned weeks before it happened.
The plan, according to authorities, was handwritten. The manuscript was found in minor X’s bedroom after she was arrested.
The couple had also drawn up a “kill list” of five minors, before deciding on Brianna as their target.
On the day of her death, Brianna, who had thousands of followers on Tiktok but was described as a shy young girl suffering from depression and anxiety, was lured to the park by Minor X before being attacked with a hunting knife in broad daylight, suffering stab wounds to her head, neck, chest and back.
The killers had planned to hide her body in the park, but were discovered by two people walking their dogs. At that point they fled the scene.
Both teenagers went home and continued their day to day lives. Later, the X-girl posted an online tribute with a photo of Brianna.
The minor admitted to the jury that she used to have “dark fantasies,” but had no desire to turn them into reality.
For his part, Minor Y commented that he followed X, but did not use to take her seriously.
Both also stated that they never expected the other to act, gave the same explanation for the crime and blamed each other.
Parents react
Faced with the heinousness of her daughter’s crime and what happened in court, Esther, Brianna’s mother, stated that she had “lost all sympathy” for the convicted youths and that they had not shown “a shred of remorse.”
“Knowing how scared my normally fearless little girl must have been when she was alone in that park with someone she called her friend will haunt me forever,” she maintained, as her voice cracked with emotion.
Her father, Peter Spooner, stated that he was “very proud” of his daughter and would never stop loving her.
“When she was little, I remember the faces she would make to make me laugh,” he said, struggling to hold back tears.
“The giggles, the funny dances are etched in my memory.”
In an interview with the BBC before the verdict, Brianna’s mother said she would never forget her daughter’s unwavering bravery and strength.
“She wasn’t afraid to be who she wanted to be.”
“She wanted to identify as a woman and she wanted to wear a girl’s school uniform. She just did it, it was no obstacle for her.”
Deadly influence
Once outside the hearing, prosecutor Doyle said that Minor X and Minor Y had been “a deadly influence on each other and turned what may have started as dark fantasies into reality.”
Detective Constable Mike Evans, of Cheshire Constabulary, said it was clear from the outset that the pair believed they could cover up their responsibility for the crime.
Child X, who was alleged in court to have autistic and attention deficit traits, even assured the younger Y, who had been diagnosed with selective mutism and autism spectrum disorder, that they would not get caught.
He also questioned the capability of the police.
But the officer insisted that the children were “intelligent and very high functioning.”
“I know people … will have this kind of image that they have constructed for themselves, but in reality they are both very intelligent and very bright, very articulate children,” he maintained.
“Their undoing has been their confidence or arrogance around the fact that they thought they could take another human life and then they wouldn’t get a punishment.”